Cities are facing the fact that a certain amount of climate change is locked in. Their creativity and co-operation was on display at The EcoCities World Summit.

Vivien Langford talks to Professor Rob Roggema about what the Dutch have learned from living partly below sea level. Could cities work more with nature, with Sand Machines and Porous Courtyards?

At a session on disaster management strategies Vivien meets Karibaiti Taoaba. She tells us how communications during and after an emergency area terrific challenge for local governments in small island states. Also foreign aid can be unhelpful “They built a clinic right where our main road used to be”. Alliances were formed at this summit to share expertise and minimise the impact of climate change. The key is to listen to the locals.

It was not all about emergencies. David Holmgren talks about the profound shift needed in our relationship with nature. Instead of building more housing let’s subdivide existing huge houses, share resources and downsize our lives to fit in with the lower carbon footprint we must achieve for an equitable future. “There’s way more land in the suburbs than people with skills to farm it”